After last month’s shopping frenzy, Louisiana governor looks to strip food stamps from abusers

The Louisiana governor's office said Wednesday night that it would strip food stamp benefits from anyone who took advantage of an EBT card malfunction that in some cases caused an all-out shopping frenzy in some stores across the state, The Advocate reported.

It is unclear how many recipients stand in line to lose benefits for a year, but more than 12,000 received an insufficient funds notice when the EBT card system was corrected on Oct.12, the report said.

"We must protect the program for those who receive and use their benefits appropriately according to the law. We are looking at each case individually, addressing those recipients who are suspected of misrepresenting their eligibility for benefits or defrauding the system," Suzy Sonnier, the secretary of state at the Department of Children and Family Services, said in a statement.

The frenzy at some stores was likened to the busiest shopping day of the year. "It was worse than any Black Friday,” Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd told local station KSLA-TV.

Shelves were picked clean in a mob scene that left employees rattled. Walmart spokeswoman Kayla Whaling told the station the company made a conscious decision to keep ringing up goods rather than to cut people off.

Via: Fox News

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Landrieu’s Lie Costs 80,000 Louisianans Their Health Coverage

Posted November 5, 2013

80,000 Louisiana Residents Will Be Kicked Off Their Health Care Plans As A Result Of ObamaCare According To The Louisiana Insurance Commissioner. “About 80,000 Louisiana residents will see their health insurance policies canceled in 2014 because they don’t meet new federal health-care standards, the state’s insurance commissioner said Monday.” (Rebecca Catalanello, “80,000 Louisianians’ Health Insurance Policies Will Be Canceled Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 11/4/13)

The Number Losing Their Insurance Represent Nearly Half Of Louisiana’s Individual Insurance Market. “The figure could account for close to half of the 165,000 people in Louisiana who hold individual health insurance plans that they pay for without the help of an employer or the government.” (Rebecca Catalanello, “80,000 Louisianians’ Health Insurance Policies Will Be Canceled Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 11/4/13)

• “‘These People Were Obviously Satisfied With Their Insurance,’ Donelon Said, ‘And I Hope That They Don’t Drop Out Of The Market.’” (Rebecca Catalanello, “80,000 Louisianians’ Health Insurance Policies Will Be Canceled Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 11/4/13)

LANDRIEU PROMISED THAT LOUISIANANS “WILL BE ABLE TO KEEP THEIR CURRENT PLAN,” BUT WENT BACK ON HER WORD

In 2009, Landrieu Said On The Floor Of The Senate That “Those Individuals Who Like The Coverage They Already Have Will Be Able To Keep Their Current Plan.” LANDRIEU: “Individuals and small businesses that do not have coverage would be able to select a private insurance plan from a range of options sold on a National Insurance Exchange. Lower and middle income people would receive subsidies to help them afford this insurance, while those individuals who like the coverage they already have will be able to keep their current plan. This is a very accurate description of this bill before us–the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” (Sen. Mary Landrieu, Floor Remarks, 12/22/09)

Landrieu Had The Chance To Keep Her Promise In 2010, But She Didn’t

In 2010, Senate Republicans Attempted To Strike Down “The Obamacare Rule That Is Largely Responsible For Some Of The Health Insurance Cancellation Letters That Are Going Out.” “Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out. In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it.” (Chris Frates, “Senate Democrats Supported Rule That Led To Insurance Cancellations,” CNN, 10/31/13)

The Resolution Would Have Struck Down HHS’s Grandfathering Provision That Was Intended To Help Americans Keep Their Insurance Plans. “The precipitating event was the federal regulation detailing the grandfathering provision of the law, which exempts existing health plans from certain requirements such as having to offer benefits without cost sharing. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) introduced a resolution of disapproval calling for a do-over on the regulation, which many businesses say is too onerous.” (Julian Pecquet, “Grandfathering Vote Sparks Renewed Health Reform Debate,” The Hill’s Health Watch , 10/29/10)

Senate Democrats Voted Unanimously To Protect The Rule. “Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out.” (Chris Frates, “Senate Democrats Supported Rule That Led To Insurance Cancellations,” CNN, 10/31/13)

• Landrieu Voted With Every Other Senate Democrat To Protect The ObamaCare Rule That Is Kicking People Off Of Their Plans. (S.J.Res 39, Roll Call Vote #244 , Defeated 40-59: R 40-0; D 0-59, 9/29/10, Landrieu Voted Nay)

LOUISIANANS WHO LOSE THEIR PLANS MAY END UP PAYING MUCH MORE UNDER OBAMACARE

Via: GOP.com

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Landrieu Admits She Broke Her Promise

Posted October 30, 2013

Today, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Said She Would Offer Legislation To Stop People From Being Kicked Off Of Their Health Plans Due To ObamaCare. “Sen. Mary Landrieu said Wednesday she would propose legislation to ensure all Americans could keep their existing insurance coverage under Obamacare, a fresh sign of the political problems the law’s rollout has created for congressional Democrats. Landrieu, a Democrat who faces a tough reelection in Louisiana in 2014, said she would either offer her own bill or formally sign onto another measure that would ensure that the law would not force anyone off of their existing health policies.” (Manu Raju, “Landrieu To Propose Halting Vanishing Health Plans,” Politico, 10/30/13)

But Landrieu Was One Of The Many Democrats Who Promised ObamaCare Would Let People Keep Their Insurance

In 2009, Landrieu Said On The Floor Of The Senate That “Those Individuals Who Like The Coverage They Already Have Will Be Able To Keep Their Current Plan.” LANDRIEU: “Individuals and small businesses that do not have coverage would be able to select a private insurance plan from a range of options sold on a National Insurance Exchange. Lower and middle income people would receive subsidies to help them afford this insurance, while those individuals who like the coverage they already have will be able to keep their current plan. This is a very accurate description of this bill before us–the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” (Sen. Mary Landrieu, Floor Remarks, 12/22/09)

Just Yesterday, Landrieu Said The Promise Had Been Kept, Claiming Democrats Had Only Promised That People Who Had “Good Insurance” Could Keep It. “According to Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Democrats had only promised that Americans could keep their insurance if it was ‘good insurance.’ We said when we passed that, ‘If you had insurance that was good insurance that you wanted to keep it, you could keep it,’ Landrieu said.” (John McCormack and Michael Warren, “Senate Democrats Struggle To Defend Health Insurance Promises,” The Weekly Standard , 10/29/13)

Now Landrieu Is Blaming Obama For Her Broken Promise

Asked Today About People Losing Their Existing Health Coverage Due To ObamaCare, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Blamed Obama. “Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, who like Begich is up for re-election in a Republican-leaning state, acknowledged that Obama’s claims were an important political sales pitch that she and other Democrats relied on to make their case for Obamacare.” (David M. Drucker, “Democrats Concede That Obama Oversold Promise For Health Care Law,” Washington Examiner , 10/30/13)

• Landrieu: “The President Said It Many, Many Times. … I Don’t Think He Intentionally Oversold It, But If That’s Not What’s Happening Then It Needs To Be Fixed, Because It Was Clearly A Promise That He Made.” (David M. Drucker, “Democrats Concede That Obama Oversold Promise For Health Care Law,” Washington Examiner , 10/30/13)

Via: GOP.gov

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DOJ Tries to Stop Parents from Defending Louisiana School Voucher Program

Injunction will prevent vouchers from being awarded in 

2014

The Justice Department is attempting to block parents from defending the Louisiana school voucher program in court, according to a brief filed Tuesday.

Four families filed last month to intervene in the DOJ’s lawsuit against the Louisiana Scholarship Program, which grants vouchers to students so they can flee failing schools rated C, D, or F.

The DOJ is seeking a permanent injunction against the school choice program, which would block access to vouchers beginning in 2014 unless a federal judge approves them. The lawsuit claims the vouchers are “impeding desegregation” because some recipients were in the racial minority at their failing school. Vouchers are awarded randomly by lottery.

The DOJ said in a motion filed Tuesday that parents whose kids have benefited from the program have no legal standing to become defendants in the case.

Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal blasted the DOJ for “trying to muzzle parents.”

“The Obama administration wants to deny a voice to the very people who will be harmed by this ridiculous lawsuit,” Jindal said in a statement. “In an offensively worded motion, the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to muzzle parents who simply want to express an opinion about why their children should have the opportunity to escape failing schools.”

Among the parents petitioning to join Louisiana as defendants against the DOJ is Mitzi Dillon, who said in a statement with the Louisiana Federation for Children that her kids would be heartbroken if they had to return to their former school.

Via: WFB

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Redneck, Inc: The Duck Dynasty Story

Way out Jonesboro Road in West Monroe, Louisiana, past all the Baptist churches, past the Jack Fluck realty signs, past the Guns & Gifts store, past the dog playing dead in the middle of the road, you will find Phil Robertson in the ramshackle house where he's lived with his wife, Miss Kay, for the past 37 years – a born-again, God-loving, God-fearing bayou couple if ever there was one – and maybe his gap-toothed brother, Si, too, and his boys, Willie, Jase, and Jep. One thing is for sure: They'll mostly all be dressed in full duck-hunting camouflage regalia and wearing headbands to restrain their long, knotted hair but letting their long, freaky beards fly free. All of them will probably have gotten ready for the day the same way Phil has – "There's not a lot of personal hygiene going on," he says; specifically, no brushing of the teeth (that being reserved for nighttime), no combing of the hair, no flossing of the teeth, no shower, no face washing, no deodorant – and they will all look slightly dazed and bewildered by the success of their A&E TV show, Duck Dynasty, which is about them, their wives, and their incredibly lucrative duck-call business.

Phil, 67, flips up the footrest on his camo-patterned, extrawide La-Z-Boy recliner, wiggles his toes in the air, tells the rat terrier named Bobo to hush, and says, "We're trying to infuse a little good into a culture in which gentleness, patience, kindness, self-control, love, joy, and peace have become abnormal."

Si, 65, is sitting next to him, sipping tea from the blue Tupperware cup his mother sent him while he was serving in Vietnam and that has since become nearly as famous as he has. "Sad," he says, shaking his head.

"Very sad," says Phil. "I go out into America and I am literally navigating a minefield. Godliness has become abnormal. I just left California, where I spoke to 40,000 altogether. I told them I was a Bible man. I told them I believe that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. 'What's he trying to say? That I can't sleep with anybody I want? Is this guy crazy?' Then they see a little family structure on TV – us – and the show goes ballistic. Thousands and thousands of people have thanked us. Isn't that right, Si?"

Si bobs his head and says, "Yeah."

Via: Men's Journal

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The Louisiana Heist - Food-stamp fraudsters should be punished to the full extent of the law.

On Saturday, Louisiana’s “EBT” system malfunctioned, causing spending limits on users’ food-stamp cards temporarily to be lifted. In two counties at least, recipients noticed the error, spread the word, and set about trying to check out as much as they could fit into shopping carts. At Walmarts in the towns of Springhill and Mansfield, employees called corporate headquarters to ask what they should do. They were instructed to “keep the registers ringing.” This they did — and with a vengeance.

By the time that proper limits on the cards had been restored a couple of hours later, the shelves had been all but stripped bare. “Just about everything is gone, I’ve never seen it in that condition,” Anthony Fuller, a customer in Mansfield, told the press. Will Lyn, the chief of police in nearby Springhill, agreed, telling the Daily Mail that “it was definitely worse than Black Friday. It was worse than anything we had ever seen in this town. There was no food left on any of the shelves, and no meat left. The grocery part of Walmart was totally decimated.” One man even managed to spend $700.

“I saw people drag out eight to ten grocery carts,” Lynd reported. Those who did not manage to take advantage in time simply abandoned their hauls in the middle of the aisles.

“Contrary to rumors,” CBS proclaimed, “nobody was unruly or arrested and [the police] were mainly there to help prevent shoplifting and theft.” Given the circumstances, “preventing theft” is a rather peculiar way of describing the behavior of officers who stood and watched the incident. Whether or not local authorities had legal cause to arrest the shoppers on the spot, there really should be no doubt that widespread theft took place — or, perhaps, that widespread fraud took place. Neither that the beneficiaries evidently believe that they could get away with it, nor that the victim was the unsympathetically anonymous mass of Louisianan and federal taxpayers alters the plain fact. This was a crime.

Via: NRO

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The Louisiana GOP Gains a Convert

New Orleans
"Je suis un Cajun noir,” Elbert Lee Guillory, the 69-year-old state senator from Opelousas, Louisiana, tells me proudly. “I am a black Cajun.” To which he might these days add, “Je suis un Républicain noir—I am a black Republican.

On May 31, Guillory became the first black Louisianan to serve at the state or federal level as a Republican since Reconstruction. In truth, he was a Republican before running for the statehouse in 2007, serving on the party’s St. Landry Parish committee and the state committee. But when he decided to run for office in his majority black, majority Democratic district, having an “R” by his name would have done him no favors. Besides, he says, his goal was to take down what he considered the corrupt regime of the local Democratic family in power, headed by Don Cravins Sr.

“He left Opelousas driving a Chevrolet,” Guillory says of his arch-rival. “Went to Baton Rouge and came back with his pockets stuffed with cash, driving a Cadillac.” Guillory registered as a Democrat and won his first race for the statehouse in a special election. He went on to win reelection and two subsequent elections to the Louisiana senate.

But by his 2011 campaign, Guillory was the only sitting Democratic senator not to receive the standard financial contribution from the state party. Always among the most conservative members of the Democratic caucus, Guillory had been voting with the Republicans more often than with the Democrats, who had been following the national party’s liberal lead on social issues like life, school choice, and gun ownership.

“All of the core values that I held and my community held, my family held,” Guillory says. “As they moved farther and farther away, what was kind of a tenuous relationship anyway became tense and rancorous.”

Via: Weekly Standard

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